Murray and McGregor serve up audiences for BBC

Viewers flocked to the BBC for live coverage of Andy Murray's victory in the 2013. Picture: PA

MIKE MERRITT

ANDY Murray’s Wimbledon victory and Ewan McGregor’s narrated series on the Hebrides helped boost BBC audiences in Scotland last year.

The BBC’s Annual Report showed it was a year of strong performance for BBC Scotland in drama, news, comedy and documentaries.

In addition, there was a record spend on BBC content made in Scotland for UK audiences, with 1,000 hours of programmes produced in the 2013 calendar year – double the number of hours produced five years ago.

Viewers flocked to the BBC for live coverage of Andy Murray’s victory in the 2013 Wimbledon championship, with an 85 per cent share of viewing in Scotland.

Hebrides: Islands on the Edge, narrated by Hollywood star McGregor, reached almost one in three of the Scottish population, almost six million viewers across the UK followed BBC Scotland’s prime-time drama Shetland, and Mrs Brown’s Boys was the most watched programme across the UK on Christmas Day.

Documentaries Clydebuilt: Ships That Made The Commonwealth, first shown on BBC Scotland then across the UK, and Piper Alpha: Fire in the Night, also performed well.

In news and current affairs, Reporting Scotland remained the most watched daily news programme in Scotland.

Online, there were eight million visitors to the BBC Scotland news website in the wake of the Clutha Bar helicopter tragedy.